AI-Powered Rendering For Games Shown By Nvidia

Machine learning and AI are one of the biggest things in technology right now. It seems there is nothing it can’t do, with some very impressive demos being shown off regularly. Some standout ones include Nvidia’s tech that can take low-resolution pictures, run them through a machine, and have them come out the other end looking beautiful. Another impressive development is the DOTA 2 bot that can play at a level better than most hardcore players. Nvidia has been at it again, to coincide with their new GPU launch, they announced DLSS, a technology that can help render games at high resolutions at a fraction of the power.

Nvidia Announces DLSS

DLSS (Deep Learning Super-Sampling) was announced alongside the new GPU line up from Nvidia. Whilst new RTX GPUs may be best known for their newfound ray-tracing capabilities, the GPU also features Tensor cores.

Tensor cores are used for machine learning applications, Nvidia’s own TITAN V GPU aimed at machine learning features a bunch of these cores. The RTX GPUs also now have these cores, and Nvidia announced they are for use with the DLSS AI-powered rendering system that will help high-resolution gaming at good framerates a possibility without just needing raw power.

Nvidia claims that DLSS will run about 50% faster with an RTX 2080 and DLSS when compared to a single GTX 1080. The games included in that claim are PUBG, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Hitman 2, Wolfenstein II, and Shadow of War.

How Does DLSS Work?

DLSS uses an AI to learn about different scenes and images, called inferencing, to help efficiently improve image quality, in a way that costly anti-aliasing methods cannot. Whilst it is possible to do this on traditional hardware, it is nowhere near as efficient as dedicated Tensor cores. This introduction is what allows the hardware to quickly and with minimal impact, improve the overall image quality.

The Drawbacks of DLSS

The biggest issue with DLSS is that you can’t just plug any game into DLSS and it will work. The games will need to explicitly support DLSS, but Nvidia has tried to make that process as simple as possible. All you have to do is send code into the Nvidia team, and they will make it work with DLSS, absolutely free.

If the barrier to entry is truly that simple, then it might not be farfetched to think that many games will take advantage of adding DLSS support into their game. Though games that are sponsored by AMD for example, probably won’t be able to add DLSS support. At least not during the initial release period.

As long as developers add support for DLSS, then it could be a major tool. But if there are no games, ultimately the technology is useless.

DLSS is Not Ready

DLSS is not ready for end users. Whilst games are announced for it, nobody has been able to test anything but a cherry-picked FFXV demo. Real world performance may be way lower than what Nvidia first claimed.

Without that knowledge its hard to really recommend it as something that is worth upgrading for. Especially considering how expensive the new RTX line of GPUs is. For now, it’s best to wait and see how DLSS evolves over time to see if it is really as good as Nvidia claim.